Now even the American Dream has been outsourced!
Jan 5, 2012, 8:29 AM | Updated: 9:30 am
Listen to Dave Ross Commentary: Now even the American Dream has been outsourced!
The New York Times today has numbers showing it is easier to move up the ladder in Canada and Western Europe than here in America … and that it isn’t just liberals who’ve noticed this but conservatives like rising star Rick Santorum.
“Studies have been done that show that in Western Europe, people at the lower parts of the income scale actually have a better mobility going up the ladder now than in America,” said Santorum.
That was at last October’s debate. When nobody was listening to him. And the numbers back him up.
In Denmark, 25 percent of those born in the bottom fifth, stay in the bottom fifth. In America, 42 percent stay there. And only 8 percent eventually make it to the top. In Denmark 14 percent move up.
This is crazy!
The whole argument against taxing the rich is that we Americans can lift ourselves by working hard. But it turns out that that’s more true in Europe than here!
How can that be?
I thought the reason Conservatives were trying to save us from Barack Obama was that he’s a European socialist who would enslave us all.
“And he takes his political inspiration from Europe, and from the socialist democrats in Europe,” said Mitt Romney.
And now we find that those European socialists are the ones living our American Dream.
Conservatives say the answer is to repeal job killing regulations. But in Europe they regulate everything! Lightbulbs, greenhouse gases, even cucumbers! In Europe, “a six-inch cucumber cannot bend more than six-tenths of an inch!” And they’re made by nature.
If mobility is better in Europe, maybe we need more regulation, not less. What if it turns out that the secret to prosperity is two-hour lunch breaks, six weeks of vacation, and perfect cucumbers?
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